A Reader in the Drifts

Fifteen years ago, I completed this lifesize bronze child reading books for the Melrose (Mass.) Public Library. Since then, a friend in Melrose occasionally sends photos of the piece in curious situations. I couldn’t resist sharing this one. With about 100 inches of snow still mostly on the ground in the Boston area, kids visiting the library not only dug out the sculpture but put a hat and scarf on it. Nothing deters a dedicated reader!

Thanks to Kelly Paulson and family for keeping me up to date.

http://www.melrosepubliclibrary.org/

Kerry Jameson at Lacoste

British ceramic sculptor Kerry Jameson gave a terrific artist talk at Concord’s Lacoste Gallery today. She explained how randomness–cracks in firing, glaze crawl, and other imperfections that drive potters crazy–has become an important feature of her studio process. Instead of rejecting pieces with firing imperfections, as ceramists are usually expected to do, Jameson dismembers pieces with a hammer and re-assembles them with a special mixture of kaolin and glue. She then uses acrylic paint, fabric, feathers, and found objects to cover the surface. Her pieces seem driven by intense internal narratives, appearing both pensive and peculiar. Most work combines animal heads and human forms; a few are wholly avian.

Jameson just completed a residency at Emmanuel College in Boston. The show at Lacoste is her first in the United States. It’s up until March 15th.

At top: Donkey, ceramic and mixed media

www.lacostegallery.com

http://www.kerryjameson.com

“Legacy of Fire” now at Fuller Craft

This exhibition (on view from Jan. 31-April 26) is one of three clay exhibitions at Fuller Craft Museum this winter. The other two are: “Continuum of Innovation: Haystack Clay Selects “(February 27 – August 23) and “State of Clay” (March 7 – May 24).  All three are organized in conjunction with the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference in Providence, RI (March 25 – 28, 2015). The reception for the three exhibitions takes place at Fuller Craft on Saturday, March 28, 2015, 2:00 – 5:00 pm with ceramic artist and educator Wayne Higby speaking at 2:00 pm​.

From 1976 – 1984, ten ceramic artists operated out of a dynamic gallery and cooperative workspace in the historic A. H. Davenport building in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. Named Clay Dragon Studios, this collaborative became a springboard for creativity and an influential foundation for numerous artists in contemporary ceramics. Now 30 years later, this retrospective exhibition showcases the rich range of mature styles, diverse materials, and new developments of former Clay Dragon Studios members. This exhibition is curated by Ellen Schön, with Judith Motzkin and is dedicated to the memories of Shellie Zimmerman Brooks and Elee Koplow.

Above: Gray Fish, Nancy Train Smith, wood-fired stoneware

http://fullercraft.org/event/legacy-of-fire-clay-dragon-studio-revisited/

Neoclassical sculpture opens soon at Boston Athenaeum

The Boston Athenaeum, just off the Common, houses one of American’s great collections of 19th century  sculpture. Harriet Hosmer is included in the Athenaeum’s next exhibit, “American Neoclassical Sculpture.”  Also on view will be work by Thomas Crawford, who gathered an American sculptors’ colony around him in Rome, where he became Louisa Lander’s teacher and champion. The exhibit begins February 26th (blizzards permitting). See the website for hours and details:

http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/exhibitions/american-neoclassical-sculpture

pictured: Will o’ the Wisp, marble, Harriet Hosmer, c.1856

Took a great introduction to blacksmithing class at Prospect Hill Forge in Waltham this weekend.  It was about 10 degrees outside, but I warmed up right away making my first project, an S-hook. Prospect Hill Forge offers classes for all levels, and hosts an open forge on Saturday mornings for those with a bit more experience.

www.prospecthillforge.com

Lisa Clague

Ceramic sculptor Lisa Clague’s “My Little Darlings” are part of the Fuller Craft Museum’s display of work from the permanent collection, up until July 12.

Made of fired ceramic with an encaustic finish (stains and waxes rather than glaze), Clague’s unsetting figures are inspired by fairy tales and childhood games. Says Clague, “Experimenting with material still excites me…I’m inspired by dreams, delightful fantasies or feverish horrors. Nature, ancient art, antique toys, old dolls that are beyond repair, all feed my imagination.”

http://lisaclague.net/new_page_1.htm

http://fullercraft.org/

 

A Wild Goose

Boston sculptor Kitty Wales has had several works in the deCordova sculpture park over the years, and her bronze “Feral Goose” is now a permanent installation along the winding path of smaller work next to the museum building. The lifesize goose, advancing toward the viewer, seemed particularly animated on a late-autumn day. Wales chooses animals as her main subject matter, whether dogs, sharks, or birds of prey.

http://www.kittywales.com/sculpture.html

Eve Celebrant

Mariana Pineda (1925-1996) created my favorite piece in the deCordova Museum’s sculpture park, “Eve Celebrant.” The lifesize bronze represents Eve before the Fall, striding confidently through her garden with a pomegranate, symbol of fertility, in one hand while the other is raised in greeting–or protection–or warning.

As Pineda said of her work: “My materials and subjects are time-honored, but I feel free to…use focus, abbreviation, merger of forms–whatever seems appropriate to convey the meaning.”*

On a misty, late fall day, it was possible to capture the softness of Eve’s moss green patina in the rainy light.

*Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, American Women Sculptors, p.373

http://www.decordova.org/art/sculpture-park

Marilu Swett at Boston Sculptors

Marilu Swett’s new exhibit, “Soundings,” explores the ocean through both natural and man-made artifacts. The artifacts are found objects, or else the artist’s riffs on oddities and castoffs that wash up along the shoreline. The work conjures New England’s maritime past in poignant tangles of antique fabrics and 19th-century tools, combined with Swett’s own cast metal, plastic, and wood sculpture. Muses Swett, “…the ocean [is the] site of evolution, human industry, and constant watery companionship.”

Swett has created a series of interrelated sculptures and drawings, some painted directly on the wall. The works find a resonant home in Boston Sculptors’ back gallery, which, with its cast iron columns, massive wooden

beams, and mysterious hatchways, adds antiquarian humor to the installation.

At Boston Sculptors until December 14: http://www.bostonsculptors.com/

All the work from the Boston Biennial!

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WxEMXmQXBw&feature=youtu.be